Others' Perspectives About Egypt and Schutz

Before I came to Egypt, I wanted to learn all I could about it. For one thing, Egypt is in Africa, yet it is in the Middle East, too.  I was no different than most Americans in that I wanted to lump the whole Middle East together into one big, scary problem area.  I really did not think in terms of countries, more in terms of the whole region.  When I heard things on the news, I didn't really make much of a distinction between Iran, Jordan, Syria, Saudi, the UAE, or Egypt or Israel.  I had listened to the propaganda on our news stations and realized I had never really learned anything about the region - it was all "over there".  And, the news never tells us anything good about "over there" - all we ever hear about is when there is a bombing or an attack of some sort.  There is plenty of good happening here.  Trust me.  I see it each day.  The people here are no different than at home.  There are a lot of cool places to visit and it is no scarier than the USA.  And now that the USA is "over there" to us, we watch CNN and the BBC and all we see coming out of the USA is news of the horrible, scary bombings, the shootings and violence on the street by civilians and corrupt police, and  the embarrassing election news.  If we judged the USA by what we see on tv, we would never feel safe going back!  Thank goodness, we know better and know that these things are isolated incidents and don't affect the overall safety of most people in the USA.  

One way we were able to realize that Egypt is NOT the dangerous place we see on CNN, FOX, or any of the news stations was to follow the blogs of people who have worked here at Schutz.  My favorite blog is one that is written by our technology director, Scott Tombleson.  It can be found at http://asalamisteakumm.blogspot.com/  

My favorite post in Scott's blog deserves to be shared over and over, so I have copied and pasted it here:  

Sharm, Beirut, Paris, etcetera, etcterea, etctetera....

I write this sitting on my porch while the cacophony of the 5am call to prayer echos through the city around me.

There is lightening flashing in the clouds over the Mediterranean. It is two days after the horror in Paris and three days from the horror in Beirut.  Aside from the call from the many mosques of the city, it is quiet.  I can hear an alarm in the distance and someone shuffling down the street. Every once in a while a car or motorcycle whizzez past.  It is peaceful. I am peaceful.  The city is peaceful.  I live in Alexandria, Egypt.  I believe that many might imagine this scene differently considering the horror that is happening around the world and the way the Arab world is portrayed in the media.  I know this from the concerned calls from family and friends and the "stay safe" posts of the friends and family of my colleagues who are here with me in Egypt.

Don't get me wrong, the place is whackado, and there is much that I don't understand about the place and honestly quite a few things that I don't like about it.  But now it is peaceful.  It is quiet.  It is lovely.

Then I unfortunately took out my phone and I looked at the news.  The headline?  France just bombed the shit out of someplace in Syria.  How many dead?  Does it even matter?  Maybe it does to some people.  My reaction is only sadness.  More terror reigning down from above in a place that needs no more.  I guess on some base level I understand.  I get it.  An eye for an eye and all that.  But haven't we progressed beyond that?  Haven't we as a species in the millions of years of trying to figure this shit out moved beyond schoolyard diplomacy?  Must we all be blind before we try something different? Sigh.... OK let's try Facebook for some funny cat videos or something.... SERIOUSLY?!?!? Some "friend" or another celebrating the bombings with a racist and disgusting post.... A former student the same?!?!  Apparently I did not do my job well.

Look, I have a pretty unique perspective.  I am a non believer living in a majority Muslim country.  I have my issues with the place, but I don't fear for my life.  My very best friend is sleeping soundly in our apartment behind me and I would never put her in harm's way.  I am safe.  We are safe.  The FOUR MILLION souls that live around me are safe.  Egypt is about 90% Muslim so that means that I live in a city with about 3,600,000 Muslims around me, so I daresay that I speak with some authority on the subject. I work with Muslims.  I have good friends that are Muslim.  I know rich Muslims and I know poor Muslims.  The hardest working and most efficient person I have ever met is a Muslim, but I know lazy Muslims too. The most pious Muslim man that I know is tolerant of my views as I work hard to be tolerant of his. My point is this, people are people.  Full stop.  There are good people and bad people everywhere.  Mostly though there are just people trying to get by and do the best that they can.  They love their families and they are trying to better themselves. It is harder to do that in some places than others, but honestly, that is all the vast, vast majority of folks on the face of this blue dot are trying to do.

Don't take the bait.  What is happening in the world is not a Muslim problem. It's not that simple and it will never be so.  It is true that I believe the world would be a better place without organized religion, but I do acknowledge that there are good things about Christianity as there are good things about Islam.  Look, if I can acknowledge that, you should be able to as well.  If we want to influence some change of direction in the world and make things better for those that follow, we HAVE to do something different.  Is one who celebrates the killing of Muslims any better than one who celebrates the killing of non-Muslims?  We can't banish the darkness with more darkness.  Hate only breeds more hate.  Please....PLEASE try not to hate.  Let's try love.  Let's try compassion.

I get that that is an easy thing for me to say.  I am not dealing with the loss of a beloved at the hands of deranged lunatics.  I get that the word compassion would not easily come to the lips of those poor souls that have lost loved ones. I could not be more sorry for their loss. Truly.  I'm only saying that I simply don't think that more hate is the answer.

The sun is up.  My best friend came out onto the porch and asked what the hell I was doing. This city is coming alive and 3,600,000 Muslims surrounding me greet the day with "Allahu Akbar" and a prayer for ALL who were lost in Sharm, and Beirut, and Paris, etcetera.  Then they kiss their children and venture out into our one shared world to do the best they can to get by and make it a better place.

Don't take the bait.  What is happening in the world is not a Muslim problem.  It is an asshole problem.  If there is anything simple about where we are as a species it is that.

If you want to read any other blogs by people who work at Schutz, here are some other good ones:   

This one is by our new school librarian who is here with her young family:

http://proverbs3-23.blogspot.com.eg/2016/09/last-things-first.html

This one is by our school's art teacher who is here for his second time.  This time, he and his wife have their young daughter with them.   http://camelsandtacos.blogspot.com.eg/

A Slice of Teacher Paradise

After 26 years of teaching special education in public schools in Michigan, I am now a learning support specialist at a non-profit American-owned and managed school in Alexandria, Egypt.  I have been hired to set up a program for students who struggle with academics.  The school already employs a full-time counselor for the emotional and behavioral aspects and a full-time English Language Learner teacher, but they have never had a teacher for special education.  My job is to assess the need and develop the program, from scratch.  Very challenging, but this has the potential to be the most rewarding assignment of my career.  We have now decided that the three of us make up the school's "Student Support Services" department!

During week one at our "new teacher orientation" I knew that I had landed in a pretty special school with some excellent people.  Our school's leader, Tom Baker, outlined his 3 expectations for everything that goes on here. They are as follows:

# 1 Kid's needs are first priority
# 2 Staff must be supported, and everything that staff wants that supports priority #1 will be seriously considered
# 3 We must be in partnership with the parents, but their needs are third priority.

This philosophy was demonstrated before the students even arrived when, during week one,  Tom's wife noted that the carpet in my room was looking pretty bad and if I wanted new tiles or to have the walls painted or anything made for my room, I just needed to ask.  She said it might not get done until Christmas break, but the maintenance staff would get to it as soon as they could.  So, I asked. Within the week, my classroom was being totally painted in the color of my choice!  The carpet would have to wait as flooring was in the long-term plans for the whole school, but did I want an area rug?  How about pillows or beanbags?  Tom noticed the curtains in the room needed to be replaced, so new ones were made. I asked for a bookshelf that would fit under my bulletin board - so they built one for me. Oh, and the whole school is getting brand new furniture, student and teacher desks by October.  Tom showed us the new chairs they had picked out - all in Falcon blue (the school's colors).  These have all been paid for by the school's PTA group which puts on a very fancy gala each year to raise money.

The school itself is over 90 years old.  It was originally built as a respite compound for Presbyterian Missionaries who worked in Cairo and other areas closer to the desert.  They would come here and relax while enjoying the breeze and view of the Mediterranean.  Since then, the city has grown tremendously and you can no longer see the ocean from the school.  The missionaries then turned the school into a boarding school, mostly for the children of the missionaries.  Later the school became as it is now, and the boarding areas were turned in to housing for foreign hire teachers.  We are also a US consulate school, meaning we do get some funding from the US government. Most recently, our school was given a security grant, so the entrance is being given a new look, we have many security cameras that have now been installed, a new fire-fighting system is being installed, and security guards watch the school 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  The elementary building is the newest building on campus.  There are 4 middle school classrooms above the auditorium.  The high school building is 3 stories around a courtyard.  My classroom is on the second floor. There are two apartment buildings, one of which has many of the management offices and cafeteria in it. There is also a building for finance and superintendent office and board rooms along with the superintendent's apartment.  In addition, there are buildings for maintenance, art and music, nurse, exercise facilities, and canteen.

High school from courtyard

View from my classroom on second floor of high school

Working outside the 8-4 school day is not expected.  Teachers are expected to have a healthy work-life balance. However, I have been told that it is easy to get yourself over-involved, so you need to be mindful of that and say no.  The fact that you can say no and not have it show up later in the form of a punitive evaluation is freeing.

Elementary Building and soccer field

School pool

Exercise and healthy habits are encouraged.  Teachers can use the school pool, weight room, workout room, and gym courts before school and after 4pm and anytime on weekends.

Professional Development is encouraged.  Every month there is at least one half-day and sometimes two where the school offers professional development.  Often the classes are taught by current staff (for example, I have been asked to do two presentations this year during the PD time), but sometimes (like tonight) people are brought in from places like Norway or elsewhere to provide some PD.  The school also sends out reminders and suggestions of various PD. As far as I know, teachers are able to go almost anywhere to participate in some of the world's top PD.

Positivity is encouraged.  We are fortunate that the staff seems very supportive of each other.  Most of the staff lives in one of two apartment complexes on campus.  It seems that with working and living so close to each other that people might get sick of each other or start talking behind other's backs or causing other types of drama - but if that goes on, I am oblivious to it.  We live across the street from the school and have the whole floor of an apartment building to ourselves, so we are better able to avoid annoying any of our colleagues - but seriously, everyone seems so nice.  One teacher has agreed to offer yoga lessons, another has started a book club, we have been included in some impromptu outings with other staff - we are probably the worse of the bunch at remembering to ask others to socialize - something we will have to work on!

Little gift given to all the teachers on the first day.  At times, positive messages are left on our desks along with pieces of chocolate.

Sports and academic teams here travel abroad for matches.  Every teacher is asked to sign up to lead at least one after-school student activity or team per year. I have signed up for "Academic Games" (it sounds like Quiz Bowl, but I don't know for sure yet!)  Last year, one of the teachers had her students do an online Book Club with a class from the USA.  At the end of the year, her class traveled to the USA to meet the other class!

Healthy meals made with fresh ingredients are provided for staff (and spouses) three times a day.  From time to time, they also provide special meals, poolside, served with wine.

Social activities are planned - Once a month there is a resident's meeting.  The elementary principal invited the entire staff to her beach house on the Mediterranean.  Every Saturday the staff has the option to go to the "City Center" - a huge shopping complex.  The weekend that we were gone to Kenya, the new staff was treated to dinner at the Greek Club, and given a tour of the many important historical sites in Alexandria.  The Operations Director invited the whole staff to his beautiful villa for a barbeque and swim.  Besides that, residents set up impromptu social activities.

Unlike the fear-based evaluations meant to punish teachers in Michigan, we have been told that evaluations are meant for helping teachers refine their craft. Evaluations are seen as learning tools, and teachers are encouraged to self-evaluate their teaching and work with other teachers to improve their skills. Professional development is encouraged and supported, and teachers are reminded to seek out excellent professional development wherever they can find it, worldwide.  This idea of evaluations being for growth opportunities rather than strictly used as punishment is refreshing.  This is the type of evaluation system that we had in Michigan in the 1990's that helped me to love and grow as a teacher.  It is the kind of evaluation system that makes sense.  Unfortunately, it is not the type of evaluation system that is now being used in most public schools in the USA right now, and that is very unfortunate.  Good teachers are leaving the public schools in part because they have a punitive evaluation system held over their head.  "Put on a dog and pony show for the observation so the administrator can check off all the proper boxes to give you a decent rating"  "We have a new evaluation system this year, so if you were highly effective last year, don't expect to be this year. The public does not think we can have so many highly effective teachers, so this one is made so it is nearly impossible to be highly effective"  It's stressful.  Anxiety is high.  It does nothing to make you WANT to improve as a teacher since you know that with each new evaluation system it will become more and more impossible to get high marks.  The people who are elected to our School Boards, the ones who are supposed to be there for the good of our children, should be fighting to get back to a model of evaluating teachers with the main priority and goal to help their teachers improve and grow, not to be used primarily as punishment and as a way to try to force teachers to take on more and more responsibility. We want better teachers, not scared teachers, right?  Shouldn't the superintendents use their collective power to say NO to the politicians and powers that are pushing such nonsense systems?  Shouldn't parents be demanding this type of evaluation system for teachers?  I'm not being overly dramatic - here is a newspaper article that came out yesterday. Survey says, Michigan Teachers Demoralized

While the school uses the common core as a general guideline, teachers are free to be as creative as they would like and do not have the crazy paperwork and checklist that teachers had to do to prove they were following the CC in Michigan.  Students are evaluated with the NWEA Maps once a year and the Fountas and Pinnell once a year.  Neither test is so long that it makes children cry.  Funding is not tied to the test results, but results are used to drive programming.

So, how about the nitty-gritty facts and figures? OK, here it is:

School Size:  Approximately 320 students

Student make-up:  Mostly Egyptian students, especially in the elementary school.  Most have English as a second (or third) language, but are supposed to be fluent in English upon entering the school.  Because the Egyptian pound is so low right now, and Schutz is an American school and parents must pay tuition in American dollars, only the wealthiest of families can send their children to our school.  One seasoned teacher put it in perspective for me when she said, "You have to realize that there is a very real possibility that one of the students in this school may someday be the leader of Egypt."

Class size:  Between 12-20 students., pre-K (3 year olds) through 12th grade.  K-5 teachers each have one full-time arabic and English speaking instructional aide in their class.  6th-8th grade teachers share one instructional aide.  There are 2 classes each of k-3rd grade, one for 4th-12th.  The school is working on increasing their enrollment and adding one class per year (next year should have 2 classes of k-4th grade)  To accommodate more teachers, 6 brand new 2-bedroom apartments are being built on top of the elementary school.

School Week: Sunday through Thursday because the Holy Day is on Friday.  Half-days are scheduled once or sometimes twice a month to allow for Professional Development time.

Instructional Day:  8am-4pm.  The elementary school operates on 6 day rotation with approximately 45 minute class periods.  Students have recess, art, music, pe, and arabic classes outside of their general ed classroom.  The Middle School and High School operates on 90 minute block scheduling in the mornings, rotating between "blue days" and "white days".  Afternoon classes are 45 minutes long.  Every teacher has between between 2-4 periods of preparation each day.  Classes end at 3pm, but on Sundays, Mondays, and Wednesdays, teachers are to stay from 3-4 to offer tutoring to students or to coach a team of some sort. After 4pm, students are to leave campus and the pool, gym, workout room, etc is again available to the staff. On Tuesdays, teachers have staff meetings from 3-5pm.  I have to try to keep track of all of the different schedules, including things such as "Meet every "Day 2" at 10am with so-and-so, unless it is a Sunday, because every Sunday is a meeting with this other group. Oh, and if a half day falls in the schedule, it is neither white nor blue, but I am not sure if it is considered part of the six-day rotation or not.  It is very confusing and I am doing my best to keep track of everything, but I've already made mistakes!

Instructional Year:  177 student contact days

Support Staff - Besides the administration (two principals and one superintendent) and secretaries, our school has a Curriculum director, a school nurse, a school counselor, an English Language Learner teacher, two technology integration staff members, and me (Learning Support Coordinator/Teacher)

Technology - Schutz has 1:1 Chromebooks for grades 6-12, and about 1:2 Chromebooks k-5 (4 Chromebook carts are located in the elementary building)  My understanding is that we are the first school in Egypt to have 1:1 technology.  Every class has projectors and document cameras.  The amount of technology at our school was no easy feat.  First of all, you need to understand that power outages in Egypt are quite common.  Off campus, the commercial internet that is available is very slow (like at our apartment).  Somehow, someway, our  brilliant technology director, Scott Tombleson was able to navigate all of this and really brought our school years forward in technology from where they were just 3 years ago (from my understanding).  The school's internet is at least 10 times faster than it is at our apartment. In addition, just importing that many computers into the country took a lot of paperwork and permits- cost a lot in import fees, and then the laptops were held up in  customs while they got sprayed to "debug them"! (I guess they take that "computer virus" thing quite literally!  All classrooms and apartments have wifi - and because the buildings all have concrete walls, setting up the wifi was amazingly complicated, too.  The decision was made to only allow Chromebooks, and to be a 100% google school.  Many other schools are going with a bring your own device system - but the issue with this is that the teacher then has to try to navigate all kinds of platforms when issues come up.  If everyone has the exact same device and uses the same apps, then when problems come up, someone in class will know that system and that device and be able to help.  Quite a smart approach, in my opinion.  Unfortunately, the same approach is not taken when it comes to a streamlined place for grades and homework. I do not know why it was chosen, but the gradebook program that is used is the most difficult one to navigate that I have ever seen - and I have seen programs come and go since schools first got computers and grading programs!  Supposedly our online gradebook is the place where teachers need to go to find parent and student contact information, to write emails, and to put in grades - but they can also leave homework reminders there as well.  For my position, where I need to keep track of the progress and homework of many students, it would be okay if all of the information could be found on this one program, even though it is difficult to manage. However, that is not the case.  Since I am not the student or the teacher, I have been unable to see how the students grades or missing homework.  In addition, most teachers record their homework assignments on other websites, so I need to keep track of where each teacher posts their stuff.  I feel like this stems from a school history where everything has just been through word of mouth.  When I arrived and wanted to find out information about students, I assumed there would be cumulative folders for each kid, kept in a central location - where all report cards, assessment results, student work samples, parent contact information, psychologist reports, OT/PT reports could be found.  Instead, for each kid I inquired about, I was told "Just talk to the teacher they had the year before", or "Files?  Oh, just ask their teacher - they should probably have something" or some other such answer which would have me chasing my tail all over the school to try to find any data that might be available on the 20 kids I was told were the highest priority concerns.  Hopefully that is one area I can improve upon to make it easier to find data on students in the future.


Special Education Needs - By policy, the school has not accepted students with disabilities in the past because they did not have any special education program or services.  Even today, it would be challenging to accept anyone with a physical disability because there are stairs everywhere and no elevators! Certainly Egypt is very behind when it comes to making anything accessible.  Within the school, very few kids have a professional diagnosis of a learning disability or ADHD, but it is quite clear that many students would benefit from getting a diagnosis and services.  Unfortunately, this is a touchy subject in Egypt.  It is my understanding that in the past in Egypt, if a child was born with a disability of any kind, all of their legal paperwork was stamped "defective" and that person was never allowed to attend school, drive a car, get married, or have a job. While this is certainly not the case today, that fear is still present.  For some families, there is a shame associated with having a child with a disability of any kind.  There is a superstition, even among the well-educated, that having a disabled child means that you have been cursed in some way.  Thank-goodness this is quickly changing among the younger parents, but it has impacted how special education services are approached at this point.  I did not expect to be told that my communications with some parents would need to be carefully worded - that just the idea that a special education teacher might call them could make them very upset.  I have found that talking in terms of learning support services that can be offered has been helpful, and once a parent understands that their child is going to get more attention and help, they are usually very pleased.  I am not one to recommend talking to a doctor about medication to help a child focus unless their focus issues are clearly impacting their ability to learn, even with the best accommodations.  However, I know that conversation is coming and it is a much harder conversation to have here in Egypt with a parent than it would have been in Michigan.  There is no speech and language teacher here, yet we are quite sure we have students who would qualify. So, we do the best we can with what we have available to us.

Culture - Egypt is a very nocturnal society.  Probably because of the heat, people wait until the sun goes down to go out.  Therefore, going out to eat or shop happens after 8pm, weddings start between 10pm and midnight.  I stopped at a pharmacy to buy a scale and asked how long they would be open - 3am!  Anyways, all this night-life takes a toll on children who have to be at school by 8am (some travel for over an hour to get to school!).  Some parents sleep in while their children are woken up by their nannies and taken  to school by their drivers - and then they are very sleepy in school.  This is a very socially verbal society as well.  Teachers are challenged to find ways to teach kids when it is appropriate and not appropriate to talk.  Yes, this is true of children worldwide, but it is taken to a whole new level here in Egypt. Though I have yet to go to the movies here in Egypt, those who have told me that it is not worth it.  Egyptian adults will talk through a whole movie - even taking phone calls while the movie is going on - loud enough that it is impossible to enjoy the movie.  In general, more children here enjoy talking with adults than children I have encountered in Michigan.  They don't have that "I'm too cool to be seen talking to a teacher" complex that is common in the USA.  The children are also very sweet and worry about the same things that kids worldwide worry about.  When walking through the elementary school I read student posters that said things like: "I want kids to like me"  " I hope that we learn to be kind to each other"  "I want to be a better student"  Most Egyptians tend to have great respect for teachers, especially if they have a lot of experience (I don't want to call myself "old")  Each time I say how long I have been teaching I hear a bit of a gasp from parents and they usually tell me how genuinely happy they are that I have decided to come to their school to teach. They seem to listen so intently and hang on my every word - which makes me feel a bit self-conscious about what I say. ( I am not the most eloquent speaker - often mixing up my words or totally blanking on what I want to say, or remembering a great piece of advice 5 minutes after they walk away. )  The other part of the school culture is club memberships - many of the families are members of the local sports club, as well as many other clubs.  Some kids go to the sports club from right after school until bedtime.  At the club they can be on a golf team, swim team, equestrian team, soccer team, etc. There are also many teams at the school, especially at the middle school and high school level.  Some of the kids are overscheduled - but this is not much different than kids in the USA today.

So, what did I miss?  If there is anything else related to the school that you are interested in knowing, please leave me a message in the comments section and I will try to answer your questions.  You can leave questions anonymously, too - no need to add your name! (unless you want to!)

Eid Break, 2016 - Camels, Pyramids, Sweden, Finland

 Thanks to a co-worker who showed us the way, we took the 3 hour train from Alexandria to Cairo to begin our Eid break.  We left on the 7pm train on Thursday, with our plane to depart from Cairo to Sweden at nearly 7pm on Friday.  Once in Cairo, we stayed at a hotel over-looking the Nile. Cairo was crazy!  It is much larger and much more congested than Alexandria, and we found the people to be less friendly and helpful. (with the exception of one gentleman who helped us by talking arabic on the phone to our uber driver so he would be able to find our pickup location) Cairo, being much further inland, was also much warmer than Alexandria, with very still air. For people who arrive on a cruise ship and only see Cairo and Giza, we feel bad for them as this is certainly not a good representation of Egypt, although the views of the Nile and the pyramids are impressive.

Since we had so much time to kill on Friday, we decided to visit the pyramids.  Thank-God we decided to go in the morning or I swear we would have melted in the afternoon.  We had been warned about the very rude vendors at the pyramids who will hound you to buy their stuff, but since it was Friday morning, a holy day, very few people were visiting the pyramids and even fewer vendors.  Unfortunately for us, though, our hotel had scammed us into getting into a car with a guy who was supposed to drive us  up to the parking lot at the pyramids and give us a tour for around $30 USD.  Instead, he dropped us off at a place that gives camel rides and told us there was no way that cars were allowed anywhere near the pyramids.  I knew that this was false, but thought perhaps this was an added bonus for our $30.  Nope, they soon had us inside and our driver had disappeared -  we were stuck paying around $300 USD to visit the pyramids.  Lesson learned - don't get out of the car!  The camels were pretty cool - though I used muscles I had never used before when riding a horse!  Camels have advantages and disadvantages.  Advantage: They lay down, making it very easy to get on them.  Disadvantage: They stand up with you on their back.   The early morning desert heat already had my hands sweating pretty profusely - and the "horn" on the saddle is smooth vertical wood, without a horizontal piece to keep your hands from sliding up and off.  I gripped as tight as I could, and squeezed my legs against the sides of the camel while the camel stood up and my body was thrust forward and back.  Luckily I was on a camel that was at least 12 inches shorter than the one Gary was on.  The saddles are very hard and very uncomfortable and I managed to get two open wounds on my rear. We rode up close to the pyramids, got on and off a few times for photo ops, and never got very close to the sphynx.  We approached from the side that makes the pyramids look like they are sitting in the middle of a rocky desert, but as we got up closer we could see the paved parking lots all around them.  We never went inside the pyramids or got close to the largest of them, but now we can say we have been there, done that - and we learned some lesson so we know what not to do in the future when Chris, Cassandra, and Lauren come for Christmas, or when we have other visitors who may want to see the pyramids.  I also learned that riding a camel is probably not the best thing to do when one is going to have to sit on an airplane and in an airport for the next 16 hours, and those open wounds took days to heal and made sitting for any length of time very uncomfortable!

Gary's camel was anxious to lay down and scratch its head! 

Our very untrustworthy guide.

Up close to one of the smaller pyramids.  

We arrived at the Stockholm Arlanda airport on Saturday, September 10, ready to make our way inland about 150 miles to visit our former exchange daughter, Emma, who lived with us for the 2012-2013 school year, and her family at their summer home. We arrived during their autumn, with the trees just starting to turn yellow and red. The temperatures were 70-80 degrees during the day, with nighttime temps falling to around 40-50 F.  Emma's family showed us a delightful time!  We loved their floating sauna - which doubles as a boat and Emma's bedroom.  The water was as cold as Lake Superior in the spring - so we would jump in and get out quickly and go right into the sauna.  We also went kayaking.  Swedish kayaks are much more narrow and unstable than ones I have been in in the USA.  My core strength was put to a test as I was in a double kayak with Rita and I was sure I was going to dump us over!  If we had dumped over, I am not sure I could have made it to shore as the water was soooo cold and we were not wearing life jackets.  Besides for my nervousness about the whole experience, it was also quite painful sitting on the hard floor of the kayak with raw spots on my butt from the camel ride! Oy vei!  

A  guest house to the summer house, but currently Johanna's cabin

The "new" red summer home they have recently purchased and their original summer home.  Very cozy with a fireplace on the porch and one inside.

Clever kayak storage for many long kayaks!

The boat sauna.  One side is a sauna, the other is Emma's room.  She has the room with the very best view! They can drive this whole raft anywhere in the lake and float take a sauna or have a picnic.

They made us fresh pizza in their pizza oven, which was made by Emma's oh so funny father, Olof.  They also served us a huge bowl of shrimp as an appetizer.  Emma and her sister Johanna also made us a meal of fresh made-from-scratch pasta and meat sauce.  Delicious! 

Emma and her mom, Rita, took us out mushroom hunting - which turned into a visit to a turn-of-the-century Swedish farm where we picked heritage plums and apples. 

a

UP, or Sweden?  You decide.

It is easy to see why the Swedes and Finns settled in the UP and Minnesota - there is really very little difference!

 One of the cows trotted up to me so I reached out to pet its head and it head-butted me, nearly knocking me down!  

We drank from the artesian well on the farm.  Along the way, we did manage to find a fair amount of mushrooms.  We looked for yellow ones that barely peak up above the surface and look like the yellow birch leaves that had fallen to the ground, and we also looked for ones that were grey in color and looked like funnels.  

They also told us that in Sweden everyone has the right to pick mushrooms, berries, etc anywhere - as long as you are not within sight of someone else's house.  If you own acreage, you can not kick someone off your land who is only there to look for mushroom or berries or apples, etc.  You can not go on someone else's land and cut down trees or cause damage to their land, but you can hike anywhere.  Emma's family recently purchased the summer house next-door to theirs (which is much larger) and were beginning to clear out the furniture so they could have it cleaned.  They do not know the exact age, but do know it was moved to its present location in the 1950's.  They estimated it to be over 100 years old.  It had the most unusual front door and the bunk beds were built in and very short - for a time when people were much shorter than they are today.  The bunks also had a bar for bed curtains to be hung. Besides for the two main summer-houses they now own, each summer home has a guest house.  

Two part front door.  Inside door is very decorative

Had to take this picture for Al Garland, so someone please be sure to show it to him.  Who knew Husqvarna made sewing machines??

Rita took us to a local copper mine that was in operation for 1,200 years!  Most houses, churches, barns, and other buildings in Sweden today are painted "mine red" from a pigment that is found only in copper mines.  We were impressed with the museum attached to the mine where every display was deliberate and made complete sense.  The stairs down into the mine were so well-built, polished, and clean and the tour was fascinating. 

Looking at the mineral on the wall that is used to pigment the red paint.  With the use of various temperatures to heat it at, they can now make the stain/paint into a yellow or a black as well.  They credit this stain as the reason they are able to preserve wooden buildings for 300 or more years.

One of the red churches in Emma's college town

Emma's college campus is made up of all red buildings.  This one is her dorm

The aesthetics and simplicity of the place seemed like so much of everything else we would encounter in Sweden. I do mean everything else - the roads were well-maintained, we never saw one home that looked like it was being neglected, we never saw one place with a junk-yard of old cars or "stuff" laying around the yard, not one neglected bike path, bridge, etc.  Even when we went to Stockholm, we did not see any signs of homelessness, no neglected buildings,  and everything was extremely clean, well-maintained, and organized. Yes, they pay very high taxes (50%)  because in Sweden, it is considered a "right" of being a human to have a safe home, food, and healthcare. Happy, healthy people keep the streets safer and cleaner and provide for a huge middle class which have the means to upkeep their homes. Over 80% of Swedes own second homes.  

Emma's family's primary home

There are upper middle class and lower middle class people, but very few people live in poverty or in extreme wealth.  Those who say high taxes will reduce the motivation to work hard, keep reading as I will talk later about why most Swedes are hard-workers.  After the mine tour, we drove about 40 miles to where Emma goes to college.  She is spending 1-2 years learning ceramics. She lives in a dorm-type set-up where there are 6 bedrooms and bathrooms with a central kitchen and living area.  The town she lives in is beautiful and is on one of the thousands of lakes in Sweden - this was a bit larger than most.  We ate the mushrooms on toast the next morning before our departure to the cruise boat to make our way to Helsinki, Finland.

Emma's dorm room

We were so shocked by the size of this pizza. Emma and Rita were not.  In traditional Swedish style, which says it is impolite to eat the last piece of anything, we cut the last piece in smaller slices - then left one not to be eaten!

Mid Summer's Eve pole - this area attracts 30,000 Swedes to their festival to celebrate the longest day of the year.  It is decorated with flowered wreaths which are not taken down until the next year.

The bunk beds in this 18th century home are really no different than the ones in Emma's parents new summer home.

The cruise to Helsinki was overnight.  In the morning we explored the city and ate lunch at a laplander stand in the market area.  A guy called us over to try some little fish that are popular in northern Finland (similar to perch).  He noticed Gary's MSU Spartan hat and made a comment - which is when we learned he is from Toledo, Ohio and had married a Finlander two years ago and moved to Finland.  Small world.  We also noticed a film crew, so Gary started talking to them when they were on break and found out they were filming an episode for one of Andrew Zimmerman's food shows (not "Bizzare Foods" but one about food from around the world).  The crew members we talked to were from Minnesota and Colorado.  We used a "Hop On, Hop Off" bus to see the city and wished we had had several more days.  Like in Sweden, we again did not see any run-down, unkempt buildings in Helsinki (although, to be fair, we were only in Helsinki for less than 12 hours and did not really have time to see much of the city)

Port entrance into Helsinki

We totally splurged on dinner.  Don't hate us!

Church built right into a mountain.  They say the acoustics are amazing

Gary feels right at home.  This is an old prison

Gun tower

The statues and architecture in both Stockholm and Helsinki was wonderful

The next morning we were back in Sweden and it was time to explore Stockholm.  

You would never think a big cruise ship would fit between these islands - and if it did, you would think it would surely hit bottom!

Many shops selling mink and other fur coats around Stockholm!

Another "Hop-on, Hop-Off" bus.  We saw the most incredible preserved shipwreck from 1626!  They sprayed it with a collagen liquid constantly for 17 years to prevent it from dry-rotting once it was surfaced in 1961.  Usually saltwater quickly decays shipwrecks, but this one was preserved underwater because it sunk in brackish water and was quickly covered by mud and years of heavily polluted water. (pollution was actually a good thing in this case!) 

The transom on this ship stood nearly 7 stories high!  Perhaps the reason it sunk on its maiden voyage after sailing just 1500 meters!

 We walked around "Old Town" listening to the performers, enjoying the very narrow streets with shops (where I bought my first real-leather purse!), and walked around the castle.  Again, the city was well-planned with bike paths through-out the city, wide sidewalks, separate areas for walking and shopping, and great public transportation.  It was a very easy city to walk to almost everything you might want to see.

Before departing from Sweden, we spent the night in the "Jumbo Stay" - a hostel built inside a Jumbo 747 jet! Jumbo Stay website for pictures

Backing up a bit, I want to tell you about the first billboard to greet us in Sweden as we made our way up the escalator in the airport. It was a big salute to their public education system! Beginning at age one, every child is entitled to a free education from daycare/preschool to college graduation, and beyond. Education is valued.  High Schoolers are allowed to talk about and debate subjects that are considered "taboo" in the USA.  Most Swedes are highly educated, beyond what Americans consider a high school education. A master's degree is considered part of the "undergraduate" system.  A bachelor's degree requires a thesis which has to be orally defended.  All degrees are equally valued by society, so pursuing degrees or training in the arts or a trade is just as valued as degrees in the hard sciences.  Work is also valued, so people are encouraged to do the work that brings them joy and to explore their gifts and interests.  The Swedes tend to believe that a happy worker is a productive worker.  Refreshing!

On our plane to Istanbul, we sat next to a 30 year old Swedish man who gave us even more perspective on the Swedish system and politics beyond what we learned from Emma and her parents and from what we saw with our own eyes and researched online.  He was headed to cheer on his friends who play on an intramural "old man" hockey team who were playing in a tournament in Florida.  He was able to take the time off work, because that is just something you can do in Sweden.  He said he was never very good in language arts in school, yet he speaks fluent English and Swedish and works in  IT for H & M.  He said he never finished his university degree because he got a job right away - and yet he was extremely knowledgeable about world history, geography, politics, movies, etc.  I made a mistake of saying that it was neat to see buildings in use today that are older than our country - to which he quickly reminded me that Native Americans would probably not see it that way!  He talked about their political system as being left and right AND up and down.  They currently have the representation of 8 political parties in their government.  I can't really remember exactly how he broke them down, but it was something to the effect that one party is for no new immigration and more government services, another is for more religion and more money spend on environmental pursuits, another for more worker rights and less business regulations, etc.  There was no way to compare it to our 2-party system. 

Speaking of work, think about this question: Do corporations and businesses exist for the good of the people, or do people exist for the good of the corporations and businesses? The policies and laws in the USA today seem to support the latter, while it is very obvious in Sweden that corporations and businesses exists for the good of the people. The government's policies and laws support this belief, which I will discuss later.  Some Swedish companies have begun to move to a 6 hour work day believing strongly in the work to home life balance.  It has worked as Swedes are more productive while at work than prior to the change. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/sweden-introduces-six-hour-work-day-a6674646.html  Those companies that practice an 8 hour work day often provide flex-time or other ways for the employee to maintain a healthy work to home life balance.  Public sector workers almost always have a 7 hour work day.  Of course, there are always those who have jobs which are not really time-dependent, but involve more creativity and innovation or are very fulfilling in other ways and people often spend far more than 40 hours a week at work because they just enjoy what they do.  In every work place, coffee breaks are essential.  Employees are given a coffee break in the morning and in the afternoon, at minimum. 

Many people say they believe in the importance of family.  It seems logical, then, that the government should support this belief with their policies, doesn't it?  In Sweden, parents are granted 480 days of parental leave, PER CHILD, which can be divided between the dad and the mom. Of those days, 360 are paid around 80%  of their normal salary, and 90 days they are paid at a flat rate.  In addition, these days can be taken up to the time the child turns 8.  Also, if a parent wants to reduce their work hours by 25% in order to have more time at home with their children (up to age 8), they may do so and then the business must put them back to full-time when they are ready.  

Since free healthcare and a public pension is a right of Swedish citizens, (Swedes believe these to be rights as much as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are American rights) businesses do not have to worry about trying to provide these "benefits".  If a person is hired to work 20 hours a week or more, or is a "temporary" employee (working hourly, less than 20 hours/week) for more than 130 days, the business is then required, by law,  to provide the employee with the benefits of collective bargaining rights.The way people talk about their work was almost confusing to us - they talked about "leaving a few weeks of vacation leave at a previous employer, so they will probably go back to work for them again at some point before retirement so they can collect their leave".  We were also told that you can leave your employment to get more education and the company has to hire you back when you return.  Can you imagine any of this in the USA today?

Swedish transportation was also very impressive.  Emma's parents told us it would be best for us to take the train for the 3 hour ride to their home.  We expected to have to get a taxi or uber from the airport to the train station, then wait at the train station for some time before the train would arrive - wasting valuable time for visiting.  Instead, we learned that the train station is just part of the very well designed, well-marked, neat and orderly airport.  After a short walk from the plane, we arrived with just 6 minutes to spare. We bought our tickets at the kiosk, walked down a short ramp to the train's platform, where we still had nearly 3 minutes before the train arrived! The train was also very neat and orderly - the conductor announced each stop clearly, and each train station was also clearly marked so we knew exactly where we were.  After our visit with Emma's family in Falun, we had planned a cruise to Helsinki.  How does one get from Falun to the cruise ship?  Well, the easiest method seemed to be by bus.  Where do you go to get on the bus?  The TRAIN station of course!!  All the transportation options in ONE location.  How deliberately simple and convenient!  While we can not claim to have much past experience with cruise ships, the simple organization of getting on and off the ship was much faster and smoother than either of the other two cruises we took out of Florida.  Once it was time to make our way back to the airport in Stockholm, we walked to the centrally-located "Central Station" in Stockholm and bought a ticket on the high-speed Arlanda Express, which traveled at top-speed of 127 mph.  I've heard a lot of arguments that the USA can't have nice things like high speed rails because we are too spread out or because we have mountains or because we have snow and the ground contracts and expands with the seasons making this too dangerous.  Look at Sweden on a map - they are at the same latitude as northern Canada/Alaska.  The ground is not exactly flat.  And, perhaps the USA can start small - high-speed rails between NYC and DC? 

Another "transportation" aspect we really liked had to do with biking.  There are bike paths everywhere! Swedes have special bike tires for winter biking (again, a place where in the winter there is only 2-4 hours of daylight and temperatures can reach well below zero).  There are lights along all the bike paths, and Swedes would rather bike 20 miles to work than take their car.  There are large taxes put on their gasoline consumption to encourage biking - which also helps save our planet from the environmental impact of carbon emissions, increases the health of Swedish citizens, and reduces cancer-causing pollutants. It seems like a win-win-win. 

Sweden stamped my passport on the page that bears this quote, "Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair. -George Washington.  Washington knew that even with the best minds of the day, the Constitution would not be perfect, but it would be a start.  Wisely, the founding fathers knew that there would be future situations and events they could not even begin  to imagine and therefore, the Constitution, as monumental as it was, would only be a framework, the skeleton of rules upon which to build the body of a nation.  

Every July 4 we celebrate our country's birth and we tend to remember only the brave and good things about those who lived in 1776. Yet, who can deny that the "standards of greatness" of 1776 USA are much different than today, in 2016? (Think homes with no central heat or air conditioning, no electricity, death by the most common of illnesses and natural causes, a government with nearly 100% debt to pay for the Revolutionary War, etc) The "standard of excellence" must always progress forward, even at the risk that some changes must then be repaired by future wise and honest people as circumstances change.  One can never go backwards into a perceived era of  "greatness" - what once was "great" in our past is far from adequate today on a world stage. 

There are many lessons to be learned from around the world in 2016 because there are many contrasts between cultures.  The founding fathers took what they knew from the most successful cultures from the past and present, attempted to repair what they perceived as flaws, and crafted the best, most progressive government and society of the day.  Nothing was truly brand new - they just combined the best of what had already been done or improved upon ideas of their day that were being done in other societies. Unselfishly, they wanted future generations to have things BETTER than they had it.  Scouts teaches us to always leave things better than we found them.  Shouldn't we always strive to be like the founding fathers  - exploring the possibilities in great ideas from elsewhere, improving upon those ideas, and making them our own?